Palm Up Hand Emoji

A hand in profile with the palm facing up. The “palm up hand” gesture is inspired from an Italian hand gesture called “ma che vuoi” which simply means “what do you want?” In this emoji, an open hand with fingers pointing in the upward direction are seen which represents a sign of stopping someone from saying or doing something. 

Mostly, this emoji symbolizes negative aspects such as frustration, emphasizing anger, or questioning someone or their actions. Without even saying a single word or giving any facial expressions, this emoji expresses a lot and that is why it has gained immense popularity in little time on the Internet and various social media platforms.

HISTORY:

The “palm up hand” is a recent invention from the Unicode 13.0 but the gesture that it represents has a long and broadened history which starts from the Mediterranean culture itself. It has a form of nuanced gesture, and its growing popularity nowadays only represents how much people prefer these types of emojis in today's times. 

USES:

Mostly, the use of this emoji is done only contextually and when some immediate action is to be represented. Human expressions such as disbelief, frustration, anger, or even a type of questioning is emphasized with this emoji. The method of using this emoji mostly expresses sarcasm or irony more than any other expression. So, even when contextual use of this emoji is done, it can be misinterpreted and keeping this in mind while using it is crucial to avoid any kind of misunderstanding.